Conductance Sensor-Based Flowrate Estimation of Horizontal Gas-Water Slug Flow From Interfacial Wave Statistics

As more and more oil fields enter the high water-cut stage, it is of great significance to develop low-cost multiphase flow meters (MPFMs) for high water-cut flows. Based on characteristic parameters of the interfacial wave, this article presents a cost-effective method for flowrate measurement of gas-water slug flow in the horizontal pipeline, which has a great potential to be developed as a key technique for gas-oil-water flow with high water cut. A series of experiments have been carried out on our laboratory flow loop in which the pipeline inner diameter is 50 mm. The superficial velocities of gas and water range from 0.97 to 5.73 m/s and 0.36 to 0.95 m/s respectively. The conductance sensors are used to extract the characteristic parameters of the interfacial wave including the average liquid film thickness and the wave velocity. The system of equations describing the relationships between the flowrates of different phases and the two characteristic parameters is established. By solving the system of equations, the flowrates of gas and water can be estimated. The experimental results show that the proposed method can give predictions for gas flowrate and water flowrate with the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) in 2.95% and 8.95% respectively, which is promising for developing a cost-effective MPFM for high water-cut flows.